Hillcrest Venture Partners

Branded Online, Inc. (BOL) is a dynamic technology company that delivers enterprise-class ecommerce, marketing, and logistics solutions to brands. BOL helps brands reach their potential by delivering scalable growth, effective marketing, and operational efficiencies. By offering world-class technology and solutions, our clients gain the control, scalability, growth, and cost savings they need to compete with the largest retailers on earth. Since 1999 Branded Online has become a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading fashion brands. The company specializes in providing the technology, infrastructure, and operational services needed to continuously drive commerce, improve customer engagement, and better address the complexities inherent in high-performing omni-channel commerce operations.

VirtuLocity Networks Inc. is a Silicon Valley startup dedicated to enhancing internet and cloud connectivity. The company has developed a cloud-based acceleration platform that improves network performance for various service providers, including Content Delivery Network operators, carrier operators, and mobile phone providers. Their technology, which includes VLN cloud and VLN software, is compatible with multiple connection types such as wired, wireless, 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi, and microwave. By optimizing existing infrastructure, VirtuLocity enables its clients to increase internet connection throughput and deliver faster service to end customers.

MomentFeed, Inc. develops a mobile customer experience management platform tailored for multi-location brands across various sectors, including automotive, banking, restaurants, retail, telecommunications, and travel. Founded in 2010 and based in Santa Monica, California, the company offers a suite of tools designed to enhance local engagement and visibility. Its platform includes features such as a mobile storefront creator, social media management for neighborhood engagement, and reputation management to safeguard digital presence. MomentFeed's services also encompass proximity search optimization, which helps brands increase visibility in local discovery channels, driving customer traffic and revenue. Additionally, the company provides location data publishing, information solutions for brand websites, and services for aligning and cleaning up location data.

NS8 Inc. is a fraud prevention and user experience protection platform based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with additional offices in Miami Beach, Florida, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, the company offers a suite of tools designed to help online businesses minimize risk through its NS8 Antifraud platform. This platform utilizes machine learning, behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and fraud pattern detection to identify and address fraudulent activities. It provides insights into bot detection and hidden session segmentation, enabling users to understand effective traffic sources. Additionally, NS8's platform offers consumer metrics that allow businesses to display customized content and track the performance of various sales techniques. The company serves a diverse range of industries, including ecommerce platforms, online merchants, payment gateways, and event ticketing sectors. In October 2020, NS8 filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Phizzle, Inc. is an engagement automation software company that specializes in fan engagement and data management solutions. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional offices in New York and Broomfield, Phizzle offers a platform that consolidates and analyzes multiple data sources to enhance customer interactions. Its flagship product, phz.io, allows users to create customized engagement applications that leverage a robust data warehouse and visualization tools. The platform supports various functions, including consumer management, gamification, and omni-channel communication, serving a diverse clientele that includes brands, colleges, and media organizations. Phizzle's technology utilizes the Internet of Things to gather and analyze both digital and real-world customer actions, enabling enterprises to automate processes and make informed decisions in critical operational environments.

Notion is a company that specializes in home monitoring systems, providing property owners with tools to safeguard their spaces and belongings. Founded in 2013 by Brett Jurgens and Ryan Margoles and based in Denver, Colorado, Notion offers a multi-function, compact sensor that delivers real-time alerts for various issues, including motion detection, temperature changes, water leaks, and alarms. The system is designed to enhance home awareness through an intuitive user experience and comprehensive data analytics, allowing customers to proactively address potential problems in their homes.

Phoenix Energy Technologies, Inc. specializes in developing software that focuses on enterprise energy management for smart buildings and connected machines. The company provides solutions that monitor, control, and manage assets such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, refrigeration, and other industrial and consumer-facing equipment. Its software offers features that alert users, measure performance, and automatically correct or predict maintenance needs, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and reducing energy costs. Serving a diverse range of clients including retailers, universities, grocery stores, and theaters, Phoenix Energy Technologies aims to help organizations achieve their energy savings goals with minimal additional hardware. Founded in 2004 and based in Aliso Viejo, California, the company was previously known as Phoenix ESG, LLC and became a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corporation in 2015.

QuickFire Networks specializes in providing a traffic processing platform designed to meet the increasing demands for compute-intensive services in the Cloud. As traditional data center solutions struggle to keep up with the significant growth in consumer demand, QuickFire Networks offers a range of applications that include video processing, packet capture and distribution, analytic processing, and packet storage. By addressing the limitations of conventional data center appliances, the company aims to enhance network performance and efficiency, ensuring that users can effectively manage and analyze network traffic in an era of rapid technological advancement.

Departing is a provider in the death care industry, focusing on modernizing the way consumers plan and pay for funeral services. The company operates through both physical locations and an online platform, offering resources to assist individuals in organizing their own death care or that of their loved ones. Departing provides detailed information about funeral homes and associated costs, aiming to simplify the often complex and traditional processes within the industry. By leveraging technology, Departing seeks to disrupt conventional practices and enhance the consumer experience in funeral planning.

Titan Photonics, Inc. specializes in the research and development of optical systems and technologies, focusing on optical transport components and network subsystems. The company designs software-enabled optical products, including intelligent optical transceivers and datacenter interconnect solutions, aimed at enhancing communication networks. Titan Photonics provides a range of products such as RF over Glass (RFoG) technologies, optical transport equipment for hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), and GPON networks, as well as various optical assemblies like WDM multiplexers and splitter/combiners. The company also offers engineering and manufacturing services tailored to the needs of communications service providers, networking companies, field installers, and government agencies. Founded in 2001 and based in Fremont, California, Titan Photonics was previously known as Optical Scale Integration before rebranding in 2005.

GenieDB, Inc. specializes in cloud computing solutions, particularly focusing on delivering a MySQL Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS). Founded in 2008 and based in San Juan Capistrano, California, the company offers a database engine that emphasizes data replication, consistency, and management. GenieDB's services enable businesses to deploy MySQL databases quickly and securely across multiple cloud infrastructures, including Amazon AWS and Google Cloud. Its multi-master replication and multi-regional distribution capabilities cater to the growing demand for low latency and continuous availability, essential for applications with a global user base. By simplifying the migration process for small and medium-sized businesses into geographically distributed cloud environments, GenieDB provides an accessible solution for achieving global scalability. The company's innovative approach enhances data synchronization and consistency across networks, ensuring optimal performance on a worldwide scale.

Codexa is developing a suite of decision-support tools to help professional investors cope effectively with the avalanche of financial information available on the Internet.